Electrical tilting antennas have become the mainstream in mobile communication systems. An electrical tilting antenna refers to a mobile antenna for which the down-tilt angle is adjusted electrically. A maintenance system located in a base station adjusts the electrical down-tilt angle of the antenna for network optimization.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a base station system including an electrical tilting antenna, which includes an antenna tower, an antenna, a remote control unit (RCU), a remote radio unit (RRU), and a base band unit (BBU). The RRU is connected with the antenna and used for receiving and transmitting signals by using the antenna. A motor is arranged inside the RCU, and the motor is connected with a phase shifter (not shown in the figure) inside the antenna through a transmission apparatus (for example, a connecting rod, not shown in the figure). During operation, the motor drives, through the transmission apparatus, the phase shifter to move, thereby adjusting the electrical down-tilt angle of the antenna. During the adjustment process, configuration data for controlling the driving and moving length is different because of different types of antenna phase shifters and different transmission and moving distances. The RCU needs to load different configuration data for different antennas having different antenna phase shifters, so that the RCU can move in a correct route and correctly adjust the electrical down-tilt angle of the antenna. This requires identifying an antenna device first, recording information about each antenna when the antenna device is added to the base station maintenance system, and loading correct configuration data to the RCU according to the information, so that the electrical tilting antenna is correctly and precisely controlled by using the RCU to control the movement of the phase shifter.
A data configuration method adopted in the prior art is that: at the system installation and configuration phase, after installing the RCU on the tower, the installation personnel write down information such as the RCU serial numbers and corresponding antenna frequency bands, and then add the RCU to the base station maintenance system and configure relevant data for each RCU to control the antennas corresponding thereto. During the process of implementing the present invention, the inventor finds that in practice, the following cases tend to occur: an RCU serial number may be written down incorrectly, or a serial number written down does not correspond to that of the RCU, or the RCU serial number written down does not match the information of the antenna to be actually connected. These cases result in incorrect information on the base station maintenance platform and incorrect configuration for the antennas. Consequently, the network fails to be optimized correctly. To correct the information, the installation personnel need to mount over the tower and read and write down the information again, causing repeated operations which wastes manpower and resources.
If the RCU is built in the antenna and the configuration data is already loaded when the RCU is delivered from the factory, only sector information of the antenna needs to be recorded at the installation site. However, this causes a problem that the RCU occupies the internal volume of the antenna, resulting in a large antenna volume. And if the RCU board and motor are built in the antenna, if the board or motor is faulty, it is difficult to dismantle them, and even if they are dismantled, the antenna is damaged and cannot be maintained.